LIBERTAD Selected Writings of Individualist Anarchy “Freedom” and “We Go On” Taken from the Killing King Abacus Site
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LIBERTAD selected writings of individualist anarchy “Freedom” and “We Go On” taken from the Killing King Abacus site. “Obsession” from Le Libertaire, August 26, 1898. “The Joy of Life” taken from Historical Anar- chist Texts. “Germinal, at the Wall of the Fédérés” from Le Droit de Vivre, no. 7, June 1–7, 1898. “To the Resigned” from l’anarchie, April 13, 1905. “May Day” from l’anar- chie, May 4, 1905. “To the Electoral Cattle” written February 1906. “Fear” from l’an- archie, May 17, 1906. “Down with the Law” from l’anarchie, February 15, 1906. “Weak Meat” written August 2, 1906. “The Cult of Carrion” from a pamphlet published in 1925, taken from articles that originally appeared in l’anarchie. “The Patriotic Herd” from l’anarchie, October 26, 1905. “The Greater of Two Thieves” from Germinal, no. 11, March 19, 1905. “To Our Friends Who Stop” taken from Disruptive Elements: The Extremes of French Anarchism. “Albert Libertad: A Biography” from The Bonnot Gang by Richard Parry. Translations by Mitch Abidor, Vincent Stone, and anonymous others. This edition published by Untorelli Press, February 2019. UNTORELLI PRESS [email protected] UNTORELLIPRESS.NOBLOGS.ORG Contents Freedom 3 Obsession 6 The Joy of Life 8 Germinal, at the Wall of the Fédérés 13 We Go On 13 To the Resigned 16 May Day 18 To the Electoral Cattle 20 Fear 21 Down with the Law! 24 Weak Meat 26 The Cult of Carrion 26 The Patriotic Herd 31 The Greater of Two Thieves 33 To Our Friends Who Stop 35 Albert Libertad: A Biography 36 Albert Libertad Libertad 3 Freedom any think that it is a simple dispute over words that makes some declare Mthemselves libertarians and others anarchist. I have an entirely different opinion. I am an anarchist and I hold to the label not for the sake of a vain gar- nishing of words, but because it means a philosophy, a different method than that of the libertarian. The libertarian, as the word indicates, is an adorer of liberty. For him, it is the beginning and end of all things. To become a cult of liberty, to write its name on all the walls, to erect statues illuminating the world, to talk about it in season and out, to declare oneself free of hereditary determinism when its ata- vistic and encompassing movements make you a slave...this is the achievement of the libertarian. The anarchist, referring simply to etymology, is against authority. That’s exact. He doesn’t make liberty the causality but rather the finality of the evolu- tion of his Self. He doesn’t say, even when it concerns merest of his acts, “I am free,” but “I want to be free.” For him, freedom is not an entity, a quality, some- thing that one has or doesn’t have, but is a result that he obtains to the degree that he obtains power. He doesn’t make freedom into a right that existed before him, before human beings, but a science that he acquires, that humans acquire, day after day, to free themselves of ignorance, abolishing the shackles of tyranny and property. Man is not free to act or not to act, by his will alone. He learns to do or not to do when he has exercised his judgement, enlightened his ignorance, or destroyed the obstacles that stand in his way. So if we take the position of a libertarian, without musical knowledge in front of his piano, is he free to play? NO! He won’t have this freedom until he has learned music and to play the in- strument. This is what the anarchists say. He also struggles against the authority that prevents him from developing his musical aptitudes - when he has them - or he who withholds the pianos. To have the freedom to play, he has to have the power to know and the power to have a piano at his disposition. Freedom is a force that one must know how to develop within the individual; no one can grant it. When the Republic takes its famous slogan: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,” does it make us free, equal or brothers? She tells us “You are free” - these are vain words since we do not have the power to be free. And why don’t we have this power? Principally because we do not know how to acquire the proper knowl- edge. We take the mirage for reality. We always await the freedom of a State, of a Redeemer, of a Revolu- 4 Libertad tion, we never work to develop it within each individual. What is the magic wand that transforms the current generation born of centuries of servitude and res- ignation into a generation of human beings deserving of freedom, because they are strong enough to conquer it? This transformation will come from the awareness that men will have of not having freedom of consciousness, that freedom is not in them, that they don’t have the right to be free, that they are not all born free and equal...and that it is nevertheless impossible to have happiness without freedom. The day that they have this consciousness they will stop at nothing to obtain freedom. This is why anarchists struggle with such strength against the libertarian current that makes one take the shadow for substance. To obtain this power, it is necessary for us to struggle against two cur- rents that threaten the conquest of our liberty: it is necessary to defend it against others and against oneself, against external and internal forces. To go towards freedom, it becomes necessary to develop our individu- ality. When I say: to go towards freedom, I mean for each of us to go toward the most complete development of our Self. We are not therefore free to take any which road, it is necessary to force ourselves to take the correct path. We are not free to yield to excessive and lawless desires, we are obliged to satisfy them. We are not free to put ourselves in a state of inebriation making our personality lose the use of its will, placing us at the mercy of anything; let’s say rather that we endure the tyranny of a passion that misery of luxury has given us. True freedom would consist of an act of authority upon this habit, to liberate oneself from its tyranny and its corollaries. I said, an act of authority, because I don’t have the passion of liberty considered a priori. I am not a libertarian. If I want to acquire liberty, I don’t adore it. I don’t amuse myself refusing the act of authority that will make me overcome the adversary that attacks me, nor do I refuse the act of authority that will make me attack the adversary. I know that every act of force is an act of au- thority. I would like to never have to use force, authority against other men, but I live in the 20th century and I am not free from the direction of my movements to acquire liberty. So, I consider the Revolution as an act of authority of some against oth- ers, individual revolt as an act of authority of some against others. And therefore I find these means logical, but I want to exactly determine the intention. I find them logical and I am ready to cooperate if these acts of temporary authority have the removing of a stable authority and giving more freedom as their goal. I find them illogical and I thwart them if their goal isn’t removing an authority. By these acts, authority gains power: she hasn’t done anything but change name, even that which one has chosen for the occasion of its modification. Libertarians make a dogma of liberty; anarchists make it an end. Liber- Libertad 5 tarians think that man is born free and that society makes him a slave. Anarchists realize that man is born into the most complete of subordinations, the greatest of servitudes and that civilization leads him to the path of liberty. That which the anarchists reproach is the association of men-society - which is obstructing the road after having guided our first steps. Society delivers hunger, malignant fever, ferocious beasts - evidently not in all cases, but gener- ally - but she makes humanity prey to misery, overwork, and governments. She puts humanity between a rock and a hard place. She makes the child forget the authority of nature to place him under the authority of men. The anarchist intervenes. He does not ask for liberty as a good that one has taken from him, but as a good that one prevents him from acquiring. He ob- serves the present society and he declares that it is a bad instrument, a bad way to call individuals to their complete development. The anarchist sees society surround men with a lattice of laws, a net of rules, and an atmosphere of morality and prejudices without doing anything to bring them out of the night of ignorance. He doesn’t have the libertarian reli- gion, liberal one could say, but more and more he wants liberty for himself like he wants pure air for his lungs. He decides then to work by all means to tear apart the threads of the lattice, the stitches of the net and endeavors to open up free thought. The anarchist’s desire is to be able to exercise his faculties with the greatest possible intensity. The more he improves himself, the more experience he takes in; the more he destroys obstacles, as much intellectual and moral as material, the more he takes an open field; the more he allows his individuality to expand, the more he becomes free to evolve and the more he proceeds towards the realization of his desire.